Power Outage Ch 1
by Prince Scruffy
Summary: After a solar flare, the world begins to go mad as everyone tries to survive. One group in particular begins to struggle until meeting a mysterious raccoon. The group is then on the run, struggling to survive together as a family while suffering with losses and trials.


"You know? I-I never expected in a-a hundred years w-we'd be here." The hedgelynx said softly, holding his axe close to him. He stopped, re-buttoning one of the buttons on his plaid shirt. The cyan cat stopped to wait for him, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah… it seems like a dream." she said, smiling, walking beside him again. Her tail twitched as the sound of leaves rustled at the bottom of their feet. It was quiet outside, and had been for quite a while.

"More l-like a nightmare." the hedgelynx muttered, following the cat. He paused. "Wait- why are y-you smiling, Luxi?" the cat turned to him with a dreamy look in her face.

"Well, I can't wait to see the face my darling Lusol will make when we come back with dinner for our pack." she smiled. "He'll be so happy! Don't you think so?" the hedgelynx shrugged.

"I guess so." They both were silent for a while, deep in their own minds. "Hey Luxi?"

"Yeah, Queste?"

"How do you think this all happened?"

"The solar flare?" her tail twitched. "Well, I guess it was just our planet's way of saying it was sick. I know there must be a reason for all this to happen, but I haven't really thought about it." Behind the two came a rustling sound, not made from their own feet. "Maybe we're watching our world crumble and there's nothing we can do." She smiled and patted Queste on the shoulder. "But we're survivors Queste. We'll make it through this-"

"L-L-Luxi?!" Queste shuddered. "D-Did you hear that?!" he whispered. Luxi concentrated and looked around, letting her nose and ears navigate her rather than her eyes. As they looked around, a white figure jumped from a tree and landed on the ground behind them. Leaves flew up from the ground as the figure landed and the two turned around to face the figure. Their eyes widened. The white raccoon stared back at them with her deep red eyes. The collar of her jacket popped up to touch her jaw line. Her eyes intimidated them a bit. Blood stains covered her from head to toe.

"Who are you?!" Luxi asked, trying to stay calm and assertive. The raccoon wiped the stains of blood from her hands onto her pants. She didn't say a word, but instead, she looked at them with a pain-striken face. Before the two could say anything, the mysterious raccoon began to slowly approach them with a limp. But she tripped on a hidden tree root and crumbled to the ground. Her leg seemed to already be bleeding.

"She's injured!" Queste exclaimed. Distant voices in the autumn-colored forest began to grow louder. Immediately, the two helped the raccoon up off the ground.

"C'mon! We'll take her to our hideout." Luxi suggested, moving quickly back in the direction they came from.

"They're coming back!" a white hedgehog with black patches exclaimed as Luxi and Queste ran towards the entrance. Another white hedgehog casually walked in with a black hedgehog who was covered with white patches. The white hedgehog had bangs covering one eye and she had a hard look in her eyes.

"Already? Damn. They're getting quicker each day." she muttered.

"Wait- they're coming back with someone else..?"

"They're what?!" Queste and Luxi stormed in, breathing hard, carrying the white raccoon in their arms. "Queste! Luxi! Who is this!?"

"I don't know, Lor! We found her injured when we were out scavenging!" Luxi exclaimed.

"S-Soba." The raccoon coughed, sitting down in a chair. "My n-name's Soba." Lor angrily looked to Luxi and Queste.

"We don't have enough food or supplies to keep another with us! We already made an exception to bring Queste into our group!" Lor growled.

"We couldn't just leave her out there!" Luxi argued.

"Look. Lor's right." The black hedgehog with white patches huffed, leaning on a wall next to the white hedgehog. They looked related with their similar contrast in pattern. "We can't just rescue a stranger, especially in our conditions."

"I-I-I can't believe you both!" Luxi cried, desperately looking at her friends. Then, slowly, she grew angry. "Fine, if you all are going to be that way… I'll share my food rations with Soba, and give her the room next to mine." she said, walking off without another word.

After she had disappeared out of the room, Lor growled and glared at Queste and Soba. She then looked to Soluna and huffed. "Soluna?" the black and white hedgehog looked to Lor. "You know what to do." she said, casually walking out of the room behind Luxi. Soluna stared at the three in the room, expressionless.

"You." Soba looked up at Soluna. "How's your leg?"

"I'm fine." she said softly. "Nothing a little rest won't cure." Queste sighed.

"Let m-me take you t-to your room-"

"Thanks." she replied quickly. Soba limped beside Queste as the two disappeared down the hallway to their quarters. Soluna looked to the white hedgehog with black patches.

"You seem tense." she said. "Lusol, are you suspicious of our new guest?"

"Sis, you know me too well." Lusol replied, shrugging casually. "I can't help it. She didn't want us to help us with her wound, most of us now travel in groups and not alone, and she wears a ridiculous amount of clothes! She has to be hiding something!" Soluna raised an eyebrow at her brother.

"_Ridiculous_? Look at your ridiculously long cape! If that's what you even call it!"

"Don't critique my sense of style! It's fabulous!" he argued. Soluna rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. You better hope it doesn't get snagged on anything." Lusol smirked. As Soluna stood keeping a watch on things, Lusol looked out the window where he had spotted the three coming back.

"Sometimes, I wish this never had happened…" he sighed. "Everyone's changed and Luxi's been in a lot of trouble. I don't know how longer we'll be able to stay together. It seemed like a good idea for us all to group up at the time, seeing how well everyone's gotten along, but…" he closed his eyes. "I don't know how long we'll last. We've already been under attack twice, and lost a lot of our supplies."

"I know." Soluna replied. "Lor's become harsher, but it's only because of all the hardships she's been through. She's a great leader, but I'm afraid for our future." Lusol nodded. "Lusol, you know I'll protect you no matter what. Even if that means we leave the ones we hold close to us." Lusol stared at Soluna for a while, and then turned back to the window.

"I just- I just hope things will change… I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"L-look, they're not l-like this all th-the time…" Queste tried to explain, bandaging Soba's leg. "It's just… a-after Lor grouped us all together, th-things got worse. We've had t-to keep moving, and so the s-stress is getting to e-everyone." Soba stared at her leg, sometimes glancing up at Queste. "And when we b-brought you here, well… Lor's just had a b-bad week, that's a-all. This isn't y-your fault." Queste stood, looking at her bandaged leg. "Do y-you feel any better, Soba?"

"Yes." she said softly. "Thank you for everything." Queste nodded, heading to the door to leave. "…Queste?" he turned to look at Soba. "Your group is lucky to have you." Queste smiled, but it slowly faded away and he looked back to the door.

"We're _all_ lucky to have each other." he said, leaving the room. Soba watched as the door closed and her eyes grew heavy. She slowly put her feet up and reclined on the bed. Sighing, she stared at the ceiling, her head on a pillow. Then, closing her eyes, she fell into a deep sleep.

"You can't just keep this up! I won't allow this anymore!" a voice yelled from across the room Soba was in. Soba awoke quickly, sitting up in bed. "I'm the one in charge here and if you're not going to follow by my rules, I swear I will kick you out of this group and make you fend for yourself out there!"

"Lor! D-don't say stuff like that!"

"I MEAN IT! Luxi has been disobeying all my commands since day one! We can't afford anymore losses!" Soba got out of bed, staying aware of her injured leg, and walking to her door, where she looked through the crack to see shadows of three figures on the wall.

"Well, maybe if you'd listen to me-"

"I don't HAVE to listen to you!" the larger shadow on the wall moved and the sound of a slap practically echoed, making Soba shudder. Then, it grew quiet. There was soft sobbing. A shadow ran to Luxi's shadow, trying to comfort her. "L-look…" Lor's voice was softer, and more understanding. "She can stay for another night. But after that, I want her gone." Lor's shadow exited the room, making Soba back up a few steps to her bed.

"D-don't worry, L-Luxi…" Queste's voice comforted her. "Lor d-didn't mean it… There, there…"

"Am I that much of a bother here?" Soba thought to herself, while turning around in her bed so that her back faced the entrance. "Damn it! Why'd I have to run into those two? They saved me and they're getting punished for it." Soba sat down on her bed, slowly putting her injured leg up. "They shouldn't have taken me with them. I would've been fine." As she examined her leg, she carefully began to take off her plaid shirt, revealing a glowing line pattern that started from her back and gradually worked all around her arms to her thighs. She removed the bandages from her leg and touched her injury, electricity emitting from her back, through her arm, out of her finger. She slowly worked her finger around the injury, slowly healing it. "They don't know who I am…" she thought. "I better get out of here before they do find out. I don't want them to end up like my last group." After healing the wound, she re-bandaged it and put her shirt back on, to hide her patterns. She then reclined back onto the bed, and closed her eyes, not seeing the figure behind her move away from her door.


End file.
